Michael didn't look convinced, and neither did Max. There had to be a logical explanation.
"Whoever it is, it isn't the Special Unit," Liz said.
"Whoever it is, we need to find them, and find Isabel and Kyle," Michael said.
"And what about Liz's vision?" Maria asked.
"We are not defenseless," Michael said, confidence in his voice.
"Well, neither was Isabel, but…," Maria said.
Before Michael could respond, Max raised his hand and said, "We need to be very careful. Whatever or whoever it is, we'll deal with it. The most important thing now is to find Isabel and Kyle…" Before it's too late, he finished silently. He saw that he didn't have to say it. Everyone was thinking the same thing.
"Maria is right about one thing," Michael said. "Something got Isabel, in spite of her powers."
"They may have caught her by surprise, and there are more of us," Max added. "Whatever happens, we have to stay together, or at least in pairs. No one goes anywhere alone."
A loud crash downstairs broke his train of thought. "Michael, you and Maria… " Max hesitated for a moment, remembering Liz's vision. They needed to keep Maria away from the top of the front stairs. "You take the back stairs, Liz and I will take the front," Max said. He would have rather kept the four of them together, but they had come up that way and had given whoever it was a chance to disappear down the opposite staircase.
There was more noise downstairs, and when Max and Liz hit the great room, they saw furniture lying everywhere. Someone had turned over chairs and tables, and had done it quickly.
"Max, look," Liz said.
He turned to see a blazing fire in the fireplace, where moments ago the fire was almost out. "Michael!" he called out.
"No one here!" came the muffled reply from the other end of the house.
"Wait there!" Max said, heading back through the house. There was some more overturned furniture in the dining room. Michael and Maria were waiting at the bottom of the back stairs, just outside the kitchen.
"Whoever it is, they're gone," Michael said. "What now?"
There was something bugging Max. There was one part of the house they hadn't checked. "Back to the kitchen," he ordered.
A few seconds later, they were in the kitchen, and Max sensed that something was wrong. "Max, look," Liz said, pointing to the plastic that had covered the back door to the house. Someone had re-sealed it. No, more than that: It looked like it had never been torn. It was odd. If someone, or something, is trying to scare us, why bother with the plastic? Max wondered.
There was another loud crash, this time from below them, followed by a loud banging sound.
"The basement," Max said, spying the open door near the pantry. He couldn't remember whether they had shut it before, but it didn't matter… he had the feeling that the answer was down there. "Come on," he said, taking the lead.
Before he took the first step, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Wait a minute, Max, I don't like this," Michael said.
Max thought about it for a moment. Something did feel wrong here, but Isabel was in trouble. He turned to Michael and said, "Neither do I."
Then he started down the stairs.
14
The basement was so full of junk that Max couldn't tell if anything had been disturbed, but this had been the source of the noise. And who or whatever had been making a racket in the house, had come down here… he was nearly sure of that.
"Let's all stay together," Max said, leading the group around the basement. Old bicycles, furniture, a boiler… but no Isabel and no Kyle. "I think we've been led down here," he said.
"I think you're right, Max," Liz said.
"1 have the same feeling, but why lead us around?" Michael said.
"That's what ghosts do, they try to scare you," Maria said.
"Okay, let's say it's a ghost… a big, mean, nasty ghost. Why the wild goose chase? Why not just strike us down with its ghostly powers?" Michael asked.
"A trap," Liz said.
"Or it's trying to separate us," Maria said.
"Why bother, if the ghost is powerful enough to take on Isabel and Kyle? Why does it care if we get separated?" Michael said.
"Because people are more scared when they're alone," Maria said.
Max nodded. There was something to that. Had the person they were after been leading them in different directions to try to pick them off one at a time? "It makes sense," Max said. "As far as we know, Isabel and Kyle were both alone when they disappeared."
"Ghosts, Max?" Michael said, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.
"I think Maria is onto something. We need to stay together," Max said. Then he spotted another partly open door, hanging in toward the basement. "There," he said, pointing.
"If you guys are right, that door could be leading us into a trap," Michael said.
"Maybe, but even if it is a trap, it's the only lead we have to Isabel and Kyle and whoever might have them," Max said.
"It seems like this ghost is staying one step ahead of us," Michael said.
"Then we'll have to be very careful," Max responded, throwing the door open. It led to another staircase that led up to steel doors. "I think it goes outside," he said.
"Max, let me go first," Michael said, trying to push forward.
"No," Max said, holding back his friend with one hand. "Stay behind Liz and Maria." When he got to the top of the stairs, he pushed against the double steel doors. At first
they didn't budge and he pushed again, this time with his shoulder, prepared to use his powers if they didn't give. But the doors swung open once he applied some pressure and Max's momentum carried him several steps outside. He barely kept to his feet on the muddy ground.
"Max!" he heard Michael shout.
Then his friends were next to him.
"You were saying about being careful?" Michael said.
Max looked around. They were in the rear of the house, near the garage, where they had parked the van. The steel doors must have been for deliveries, maybe even for coal when the house was built.
"At least it stopped raining," Liz noticed.
Max saw that she was right. In fact, the night had gotten pretty clear. There were still clouds in the sky, but he could see stars, and the nearly full moon gave them enough light to see.
Scanning the grounds, Max took in the large pool, which was empty except for a few feet of dirty water. There was a tennis court, a field, and the remains of a garden with a large fountain in the center.
Once again, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was playing with them. And whoever he was, he had Isabel and Kyle. Too much time had passed already; he had to do something now. He had to act before it was too late for Isabel.
Something flashed behind the fountain. Max knew instinctively that this was it. Then he was moving, with Michael and Maria on his left and Liz on his right.
"What was it?" Michael asked.
"I saw someone in the garden. We're going to stop this
right now," he said. He told himself this would turn out all right. He would make it all right. He would not fail Isabel again, not in this life.
Max and the others reached the fountain and saw what looked like a hooded and caped figure disappear behind an overgrown bush. Angling around it, Max couldn't see anything but a jumble of weeds and plants he. couldn't identify.
"There," Michael called, pointing to movement in a hedge maybe a hundred yards ahead. Max nodded, and the group headed in that direction. They had to dodge a maze of plants, and more than once, Max felt something scratch his arms.
They reached the hedge, which, Max realized, marked the outer barrier of the garden. There were no breaks in the hedge, and they wouldn't be able to get through it easily. The growth was thick, and the hedge was nearly three times his height. Maybe the person we're chasing knows a hidden passage through it, he thought. Or maybe it can just walk through solid objects.
Maybe Maria was right. Were they dealing with a ghost? Or a spirit? Was that idea any stranger than his own existence as an alien-human hybrid? If this was a spirit, Max sensed it was evil. Was it more powerful than them? It probably had Isabel and Kyle, so it wasn't powerless. On the other hand, it had not tried to take them all at once, so there might be some limit to its powers.